The proposed flag for Wigtownshire is taken from the arms used by the former Wigtownshire County Council, where the design appears as a “chief”, the top section of the shield

This in turn was based upon the arms of the Dalrymple lords of Stair

who owned significant territory in the county. While all modern illustrations of the Wigtownshire County Council arms unequivocally display the saltire as black it seems plausible that this may have arisen from a mistaken understanding of original line drawings, where colours were indicated by “hatching”, that is a series of specific strokes of a pencil etc. to represent colours, when materials to depict those colours were not available. An intended navy blue colour may have been misinterpreted as black. Notwithstanding this possibly erroneous origin however, the dramatic and unique Wigtownshire arrangement of black and gold, saltire and diamonds makes a fine flag for the county. One may consider for comparison the national flag of Qatar with its unusual shade of maroon, which similarly appeared as an unintended consequence of the sun affecting natural red dyes – the result being a highly distinctive and unusual flag!